ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 



In 1635 occurs a name destined to be one of the greatest in the century 

 succeeding : John Deane of Lyme Regis was presented ' for refusing to receive 

 the communion of Mr. Westley.'^^* Elizabeth Bugler was in 1639 presented 

 for breaking the sabbath, 



when summoned the widow confessed that upon the Sunday before Whitsunday 

 upon urgent occasion she did for some of her customers grind in her mill at Sherborne 

 certayne gristes for which she is heartily sorry .^*' 



For the most part presentments at this time were made for moral offences, 

 drunkenness and violence in church, occasionally for non-attendance at church 

 or communion ; in 1635, Marian Davies, wife of Jenkin Davies of Sherborne, 

 'for striking Ryw Palmers wife in ye church'; ^^^ in 1638, Joanna Kelleway, 

 ' for not receiving the Communion at Easter last ' ''^ ; Thomas Thomas of 

 Alton Pancras was presented ' in that he absented himself from his parish 

 church at tyme of divine prayers and hath not received the Sacrament in all his 

 life tyme he being of the age of 27 yeares ' ; this last acknowledged his fault, 

 humbly submitted himself, and was ordered to frequent the church and receive 

 the sacrament the next week.^*^ 



Meantime, in spite of the existence of hotbeds of Catholicism such as we 

 have indicated, the tide of public opinion in this county flowed steadily in the 

 direction of Puritanism. So strong was the hold it had already obtained 

 here, that in 1634 Laud complained that there were Puritans in nearly every 

 parish in Dorset.'"' Bishop Skinner of Bristol in an address to the clergy 

 at a visitation held by him at Dorchester, 18 September, 1637, proceeds, after 

 emphasizing the importance of sound doctrine, to plead the value of ancient 

 custom with regard to the practice of kneeling at prayers, the use of the cross 

 in baptism, and the observance of set feasts and holidays."" That the general 

 desire of a reform in church matters was very strong is shown by the message 

 presented by this county to Parliament by word of mouth of Lord Digby in 

 the general petition of grievances in 1 640."' The influence of John White, 

 appointed to Holy Trinity in 1606, probably had much to do with making 

 Dorchester a stronghold of Puritan sentiment."^ The ' Patriarch of Dor- 

 chester,' as he was termed, was instrumental in organizing a scheme for 

 sending out a colony chiefly composed of Dorset men to settle at New 

 Dorchester, Mass. At the beginning of the Long Parliament he took 

 the covenant, and succeeded in inducing many of his fellow-townsmen to do 

 the same."" He and his friend William Benn, rector of All Saints', who 



'" Liber Visit. Decani, 1635. This would be Bartholomew Wesley, the great-grandfather of the 

 revivalist of the eighteenth century. '" Ibid. 1639. ^''Mbid. 1635. "'" Ibid. 1638. 



'^ Ibid. 1669. The Rev. C. H. Mayo has noted in Buckland Neuilon Parish Reg. how church discipline 

 was still maintained in the later part of the seventeenth century. On 3 May, 1674, the register records that 

 Mr. William Aarnold and Jone Lane were excommunicated in Bucidand church ; on the i6th of the same 

 month that Martha Lane, the reputed ' dafter ' of Thomas Trew of Clinger, was baptized ; a few days after, 

 on 31 May, ' Thomas Trew bore penance in Church ' (p. 10). Mr. William Arnold was again excommuni- 

 cated on 4 Oct. 1685. 



""^ W. Densham and J. Ogle, Congregational Ch. in Dorset, Introd. p. vii. 



''" Speech of Dr. R. Skinner, Lord Bp. of Bristol, at the Visit, at Dorchester (published 1744). 



*" Shaw, Hist. ofCh. of Engl, during the Civil War, i, 9-12. 



"' According to Fuller {IVorthies, i, 340), his influence brought about great reforms in the condition of 

 the town. Beginning as a moderate Puritan, his views were probably rendered more extreme by the 

 persecution to which he was subjected. He was summoned before the Court of High Commission in 1625, 

 to answer respecting certain papers that had been found in his study, but was eventually discharged and his 

 informant reproved for ' twattling.' Cal. S.P. Dom. 1635-6, p. 513 ; 1638-9, p. 217. 



"^ Hutchins, Hist, of Dorset, ii, 375. 



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